Report Calls Tyson Fit to Fight Again

Mike Tyson’s biggest struggles have been those waged within his own mind. And too often, he has lost those struggles, plunging him into depression. But despite all that, and despite the fact that he thought about harming one of the doctors who recently examined him, Tyson is “fit to box again.”

So concludes a report summarizing five days of extensive psychiatric testing of Tyson, a report turned over to the Nevada State Athletic Commission on Monday.

Because the report was received just before the 5 p.m. deadline set by the commission--by about 30 seconds--Tyson’s hearing to continue his bid to regain his boxing license will be held as scheduled Monday. If Tyson is successful in that bid, he wants to return to the ring in Las Vegas on Dec. 5.

“We received it [the medical report] at 4:59 and 30 seconds,” Marc Ratner, executive director of the Nevada commission, said Tuesday, “and now, we are going to go forward.”

Tyson, a former two-time heavyweight champion, was examined by a team of six doctors last month at Massachusetts General Hospital.

“I have no self-esteem,” Tyson admitted to the doctors, “but the biggest ego in the world.”

Tyson told the doctors that his feelings of depression have been with him “all my life.”

The doctors concluded that Tyson has a “constellation of neurobehavioral deficits.”

Tyson had his boxing license revoked after biting heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield’s ears in their title rematch in June 1997.

Tyson revealed to the psychiatrists that he had gone into that bout in a very depressed state partially because he felt he had been betrayed by “people I would have died for.”

Tyson has since severed his ties with promoter Don King and co-managers Rory Holloway and John Horne following claims that King, in particular, had stolen much of Tyson’s money. Although he has earned more than $100 million since leaving prison in 1995 after serving three years on a rape conviction, Tyson has little money left, according to advisor Shelly Finkel, and needs to fight in order to pay off a $13 million IRS claim against him.

“Mr. Tyson is a 32-year-old married man who reports a long history of low-level depression,” according to the report. “His personal history is marked by significant psychological and physical trauma as well as a belief that he has been betrayed by individuals close to him. This has caused Mr. Tyson to have significant problems with trust. . . . Mr. Tyson’s changes from normal mood to anger seem to be triggered by his belief that he is being used, victimized and treated unfairly. When this occurs, he becomes defensive and uses anger to push people away. . . . Mr. Tyson denies any desire to harm others.”

Yet despite that statement, one of the examining doctors revealed that Tyson had expressed a “wish” to resort to violence against the examiner.

“It was this evaluator’s clinical impression,” wrote Dr. David Medoff, “that this incident did not reflect Mr. Tyson’s intent to intimidate, but rather that it was an expression of a fantasy in reaction to the frustration of this evaluation.”

Tyson has maintained that he has learned to control the rage that caused him to lose his composure in the ring against Holyfield and act in a manner that shocked the world--even the boxing world, which has seen more than its share of outrageous acts.

Tyson appeared before the Nevada commission last month, along with a supporting cast of lawyers, a psychiatrist, a counselor and an accountant, to ask for his license back. But the commissioners, feeling that Tyson had only received a cursory mental examination, postponed a decision until he could be examined by one of three medical teams recommended by the commission.

After choosing the Massachusetts facility, Tyson tried to keep the results from being made public, a violation of Nevada’s open-records law. The case went to the Nevada Supreme Court, which ruled against the fighter Monday.

According to the doctor’s report, Tyson wanted to keep the examination results secret because he was afraid the report would make him look “psycho.” Tyson expressed similar feelings after listening to his mental condition being discussed in the first hearing. After over six hours of such testimony, Tyson said he was made to feel “like Norman Bates,” the killer in the movie “Psycho.”

Doctors concluded that while Tyson should undergo regular psychotherapy, he could maintain control of his emotions in any future bouts because he had been able to do so in the marathon mental examination, a more difficult situation for Tyson.

“Boxing provides a different set of stresses,” according to the report, “in many ways less troubling for Mr. Tyson than the process he underwent in our offices. His sense of mastery in boxing is much greater than his comfort level in an unfamiliar clinical setting. . . . We saw no definitive evidence that Mr. Tyson would be unable to handle unpredictable events in the ring.”

The doctors are convinced that Tyson is genuinely sorry about the ear-biting incident.

“He is remorseful . . . and is highly motivated to avoid repetition of that behavior,” according to the report. “We believe that the risk of such a re-offense is low.”

Because Tyson has received approval to fight from a group selected by the commission, it appears that the condition of his mental state will no longer be an issue.

That leaves only one big hurdle: the Maryland incident.

Tyson is facing charges in Maryland that he struck two men, one in his 50s and one in his 60s, after an apparently routine traffic accident.

Tyson was not permitted to answer questions about the incident at last month’s hearing on the advice of his lawyers. That frustrated several of the commissioners, who expressed uneasiness about proceeding with their deliberations until they knew more about the Maryland case.

Lawyers for Tyson have been trying to reach a settlement with the alleged victims in Maryland, but prosecutors there say they still plan to proceed with the case.

Unless that happens by Monday, the commissioners will have to weigh unproven charges of unchecked rage against an extensive psychiatric report that concludes Tyson is likely to keep his rage under control in the ring.